PRICKLY ASH (Toothache Tree) 



Zanthoxylum americanum Mill. 



April It is early spring in the rocky woods, and, there on the liill- 



Woods slope ahove the creek, the thorny thickets of prickly ash trees 

 are all in hloom. It is an insig-nificant bnt elo(juent burst of 

 bloom, the full extent of this tree's annual llowering, but it serves the 

 prickly ash sufficiently well to provide seeds for the coming year. The 

 flowers are short, stamen-filled, greenish or yellowish, shallow bells which 

 burst ap])arently from the bark of the stems, where the stern ])rickles 

 jut out. There are no leaves on the prickly ash so early in April when the 

 flowers bloom. Then the tight, deeply set buds open and the compound 

 leaves come forth, and it is late spring, and then summer. All summer the 

 dark gi'een leaves are there on the trees and make a dense shade beneath. 

 Sometimes the leaves are eaten by the hungry orange-dog caterpillar, 

 lan-a of the giant swallowtail which prefers, of all plants in the land, 

 the leaves of Kue family members for a diet. Tu the southern states the 

 orange-dog, therefore, eats the leaves of orange, lemon, and grapefruit 

 trees. In the north it chooses those of the piickly ash. which is a nuMuber 

 of the same family. 



In late siuiimer and autiimn tlic fruits are ripe. These are extremely 

 miniature scarlet "oranges" which split to reveal a sliiny black svod. 

 The fleshy fruits when crushed have a strong citius oddi', aiul \\lu'ii 

 applied to the skin or taken into the mouth, set up a violent burning 

 sensation. This is the reason foi- its coinmon name of toothache tree, for 

 the counter-irritation set up by the fruits and inner bark of prickly ash 

 is enough to make anyone forget the most severe toothaeh(\ Indians and 

 pioneers knew the prickly ash for this beneficent cjuality. 



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